Monday, September 14, 2015

9
Science-Backed Job Interview Tips

1.Use “power-priming tactics.”In a job interview experiment where
one group of applicants were asked to focus on a time in which they felt in
control and empowered in their lives, and another group was instructed to
reflect on a time when they felt disempowered, it was the first group - the
power-primed group - that succeeded. Interviewers chose the power-primed group
over the other group at a significantly higher rate.

Before
your next interview, think about a time in your life when you felt successful
and empowered - work-related, or personal - to increase your chances of getting
hired.

2.Smile, but not too much.You
should always be friendly and polite, but be serious when you need to be. In
one study, candidates who smiled more at the beginning and end of the
interview, and less in the middle — when they were focused on answering
questions — did better than those who smiled, continuously, throughout.

3.Use your interviewer’s name.Not
only can using your interviewer’s first name help you remember it, but it’s
also a proven way to make them feel more positive about you. Of course, don’t
overuse it, but do drop it in a few times.

4.Practice “reflective
listening.”Reflective
listening is when you repeat back your interviewer’s statement or question in
your own words. Studies have shown that reflective listening can increase your
chances of getting hired, as it demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of
what the interviewer is trying to communicate, and may also make your
interviewer feel more positive about you.

Here’s
an example of how you can use reflective listening in a job interview:

Interviewer:“This position requires a writer who won’t
have a problem covering a political story one day, a celebrity gossip piece the
next, and can do both of them well, and willingly. How does this sound?”

You:“So, you’re looking for a versatile writer
who’s enthusiastic and up for anything. That’s exactly how I would describe
myself. As you can see from my clips, I’ve done everything from travel writing
to investigative journalism, so I believe I’d be a great fit for this job.”

5.Keep your hands warm and dry.It
might sound weird, but think about it. Cold and clammy hands are a sign of
anxiety. Therefore, warm and dry hands suggest the opposite. Before you
interview, if you’re coming in from hot temperatures, be sure to wipe off any
sweat, and if you’re coming in from the cold, make sure your handshake isn’t
icy!

6.Try mirroring, but stay
positive.Mirroring is when you mimic a person’s
body language: they smile, you smile. They use hand gestures, you use hand
gestures. Research has shown that mirroring can increase your chance of success
in an interview, and in many interactions, people “mirror” each other without
even trying. This is something to be careful about. In a study where
interviewers were distant and aloof, interviewees who mirrored their body
language were less likely to be hired than those who stayed positive no matter
what.

7.Be mindful of your body
language.It’s been said time and time again, but
study after study has shown just how important nonverbal communication can be.
When you’re in a job interview, usepositive nonverbal
behavior. According to research findings, you should:

8.Consider the Construal Level
Theory.According to the Construal Level Theory,
the farther away you are from an object or person, the more abstract your
thinking will be. The closer you are, the more concrete your thinking will be.
An often used example is a summer vacation: six months out, in the winter,
you’re daydreaming about sunshine and sand. Six days out, you’re planning
specifics, like making restaurant reservations or nailing down your itinerary.

Researchers tested the theory in an experiment where they had
applicants sit either close or far from interviewers, and then either promote
themselves in concrete or abstract ways. The results were in line with CLT:
applicants who sat close and discussed specific attributes or instances were
most successful, as were applicants who sat far away and emphasized more
abstract qualities, like theirsoft skills.

What does this mean for your interview? Well,providing specifics isalwaysa
good thingto do in an
interview. But, if you find yourself seated far from your interviewer, take
care to mention some soft skills, too - for example, your “strong work ethic”
or “superior time management skills.”

9.Don’t interrupt.Interrupting
someone elicits negative feelings. Never interrupt your interviewer, even when
you think that finishing their sentence will show that you’re on the same page.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

An
unidentified flying object crashed on a ranch northwest of Roswell, New Mexico,
sometime during the first week of July 1947.

Rancher
W.W. “Mack” Brazel said later he found debris from the crash as he and the son
of Floyd and Loretta Proctor rode their horses out to check on sheep after a
fierce thunderstorm the night before. Brazel said that as they rode along, he
began to notice unusual pieces of what seemed to be metal debris scattered over
a large area. Upon further inspection, he said, he saw a shallow trench several
hundred feet long had been gouged into the ground.

Brazel
said he was struck by the unusual properties of the debris and, after dragging
large pieces of it to a shed, he took some of it over to show the Proctors.

Mrs.
Proctor, who later moved from the ranch to a house closer to town, said she
remembers Brazel showing up with the strange material.

The
Proctors told Brazel he might be holding wreckage from an alien spacecraft — a
number of UFO sightings had been reported in the United States that summer — or
a government project, and that he should report the incident to Chaves County
Sheriff George Wilcox.

A day or
two later, Brazel drove into Roswell, the county seat, and reported the
incident to Wilcox, who reported it to Maj. Jesse Marcel, intelligence officer
for the 509th Bomb Group, stationed at Roswell Army Air Field.

In their
book, A History of UFO Crashes, UFO researchers Don Schmitt and Kevin Randle
say their research shows military radar had been tracking an unidentified
flying object in the skies over southern New Mexico for four days. On the night
of July 4, 1947, radar indicated the object had gone down about 30-40 miles
northwest of Roswell.

The book
says eyewitness William Woody, who lived east of Roswell, said he remembered
being outside with his father the night of July 4, 1947, when he saw a
brilliant object plunge to the ground.

The debris
site was closed for several days while the wreckage was cleared, and Schmitt
and Randle say that when Woody and his father tried to locate the area of the
crash they had seen, Woody said they were stopped by military personnel who
ordered them out of the area.

Debris

Schmitt
and Randle say Marcel, after receiving the call from Wilcox and subsequent
orders from Col. William Blanchard, 509th commanding officer, went to
investigate Brazel’s report. Marcel and Capt. Sheridan Cavitt, senior Counter
Intelligence Corps (CIC) agent, followed the rancher off-road to his place.
They spent the night there and Marcel inspected a large piece of debris Brazel
had dragged from the pasture.

Monday
morning, July 7, Marcel took his first step onto the debris field. Marcel would
remark later that “something ... must have exploded above the ground and fell.”
As Brazel, Cavitt and Marcel inspected the field, Marcel was able to “determine
which direction it came from, and which direction it was heading. It was in the
pattern ... you could tell where it started out and where it ended by how it
was thinned out …”

According
to Marcel, the debris was “strewn over a wide area, I guess maybe
three-quarters of a mile long and a few hundred feet wide.” Scattered in the
debris were small bits of metal that Marcel held a cigarette lighter to to see
if it would burn.

Along with
the metal, Marcel described weightless “I”-beam-like structures that were
three-eights inch by one-quarter inch, none of them very long, that would
neither bend nor break. Some of these “I”-beams had indecipherable characters
along the length, in two colors. Marcel also described metal debris the
thickness of tinfoil that was indestructible.

After
gathering enough debris to fill his staff car, Marcel decided to stop by his
home on the way back to the base so he could show his family the unusual
debris. He’d never seen anything quite like it.

“I didn't
know what we were picking up,” he said. “I still don't know what it was ... It
could not have been part of an aircraft, not part of any kind of weather
balloon or experimental balloon ... I’ve seen rockets ... sent up at the White
Sands Testing Grounds. It definitely was not part of an aircraft or missile or
rocket.”

Under
hypnosis conducted by Dr. John Watkins in May 1990, Jesse Marcel Jr. remembered
being awakened by his father that night and following him outside to help carry
in a large box filled with debris. Once inside, they emptied the contents of
the debris onto the kitchen floor.

Jesse Jr.
described the lead foil and “I”-beams. Under hypnosis, he recalled the writing
on the “I”-beams as “Purple. Strange. Never saw anything like it ... different
geometric shapes, leaves and circles.”

Under
questioning, he said the symbols were shiny purple and they were small. There
were many separate figures. This too, under hypnosis: [Marcel Sr. was saying it
was a flying saucer] “I ask him what a flying saucer is. I don't know what a
flying saucer is ... It’s a ship. [Dad’s] excited!”

Marcel
reported what he found to Blanchard, showing him pieces of the wreckage, none
of which looked like anything Blanchard had ever seen.

Bodies

Meanwhile,
Glenn Dennis, a young mortician working at Ballard Funeral Home, received some
curious calls one afternoon from the RAAF morgue. The base’s mortuary officer
was trying to get hold of some small, hermetically sealed coffins and also
wanted to know how to preserve bodies that had been exposed to the elements for
a few days and avoid contaminating the tissue.

Dennis
later said that evening he drove to the base hospital, where he saw large
pieces of wreckage with strange engravings on one of the pieces sticking out of
the back of a military ambulance. He entered the hospital and was visiting with
a nurse he knew when suddenly he was threatened by military police and forced
to leave.

The next
day, Dennis met with the nurse, who told him about bodies discovered with the
wreckage and drew pictures of them on a prescription pad. Within a few days she
was transferred to England; her whereabouts remain unknown.

Roswell Army Air Field Press Release

At 11
a.m., July 8, 1947, Lt. Walter Haut, RAAF public information officer, finished
a press release Blanchard had ordered him to write, stating that the wreckage
of a crashed disk had been recovered.

He gave
copies to the two radio stations and both of the local newspapers. By 2:26
p.m., the story was on The Associated Press wire:

“The Army
Air Forces here today announced a flying disk had been found.”

As calls
began to pour into the base from all over the world, Lt. Robert Shirkey watched
as MPs carried loaded wreckage onto a C-54 from the First Transport Unit.

To get a
better look, Shirkey stepped around Col. Blanchard, who was irritated with all
of the calls coming into the base. Blanchard decided to travel out to the
debris field and left instructions that he'd gone on leave.

Headquarters Gets Involved

Blanchard
had sent Marcel to Fort Worth Army Air Field (later Carswell Air Force Base) to
report to Brig. Gen. Roger M. Ramey, commanding officer of the 8th Air Force.

Marcel
told Haut years later that he’d taken some of the debris into Ramey's office to
show him what had been found. The material was displayed on Ramey's desk for
the general when he returned.

Upon his return,
Ramey wanted to see the exact location of the debris field, so he and Marcel
went to the map room down the hall — but when they returned, the wreckage that
had been placed on the desk was gone and a weather balloon was spread out on
the floor. Maj. Charles A. Cashon took the now-famous photo of Marcel with the
weather balloon in Ramey's office.

It was
then reported that Ramey recognized the remains as part of a weather balloon.
Brig. Gen. Thomas DuBose, the chief of staff of the 8th Air Force, said, “[It]
was a cover story. The whole balloon part of it. That was the part of the story
we were told to give to the public and news and that was it.”

Later that
afternoon, Haut’s original press release was rescinded and an officer from the
base retrieved all of the copies from the radio stations and newspaper offices.
The next day, July 9, a second press release was issued stating that the 509th
Bomb Group had mistakenly identified a weather balloon as wreckage of a flying
saucer.

On July 9,
as reports went out that the crashed object was actually a weather balloon,
cleanup crews were busily clearing the debris. Bud Payne, a rancher at Corona,
was trying to round up a stray when he was spotted by the military and carried
off the Foster ranch. Broadcaster Judd Roberts and Walt Whitmore were turned
away as they approached the debris field.

As the wreckage was brought to the
base, it was crated and stored in a hangar.

Back in
town, Walt Whitmore and Lyman Strickland saw their friend, Mack Brazel, who was
being escorted to the Roswell Daily Record by three military officers. He
ignored Whitmore and Strickland, which was not at all like Mack, and once he
got to the Roswell Daily Record offices, he changed his story. He now claimed
to have found the debris on June 14. Brazel also mentioned that he’d found
weather observation devices on two other occasions, but what he found this time
was no weather balloon.

The Las Vegas Review Journal, along
with dozens of other newspapers, carried the AP story:

“Reports
of flying saucers whizzing through the sky fell off sharply today as the Army
and the Navy began a concentrated campaign to stop the rumors.”

The story
also reported that AAF Headquarters in Washington had “delivered a blistering
rebuke to officers at Roswell.”

The
military has tried to convince the news media from that day forward that the
object found near Roswell was nothing more than a weather balloon.

As soon as you place more than one element on the page you create a
pattern and pattern is the seed of rhythm. Whether or not you plan for it, your
design will have rhythm running through it. Rhythmactivates
space. Rhythm creates mood. Rhythm can lead visitors through

your design.

Rhythm is one of the essential principles we
have to work with. It’s a word you know, but perhaps one you don’t associate
with design. What is rhythm in the context of visual elements and how do we
create it?

What is Rhythm?

Rhythm is
a regular and repeated pattern, usually of sound or movement. When you think
rhythm music is probably the first thing that comes to mind. In music, rhythm
is created by alternating sound and non-sound over time. When notes and chords
are played in predictable intervals we get rhythm.

How do we
define rhythm visually? As a design principle we can say rhythm is the
patterned repetition of elements in space. We place elements on the page and
experience the intervals between them. Time enters as our eye moves from one
element to the next and through this rhythm in space and time we can create a
sense of organized movement similar to a musical beat.

There are a variety of places where
you can find rhythm.

music — patterns of sound over timed
intervals

dance — patterns of movement and gesture
through physical space

speech — patterns of cadence in spoken words

writing — patterns of cadence written words

painting — patterns of brush stroke, color,
shape, on a canvas

Notice the
repetition of the word “patterns” in the list above. Pattern is essential to
rhythm. So is repetition. The list above creates a rhythm though repetition.
Visually each list item begins with a bullet. The bullet is then followed by a
single bolded word, an mdash, and the words “patterns of.” Were I to add
another item to the list you would expect it to follow the same predictable
pattern.

Notice
too, the slight variations created with the length of each line and by the
links in a couple of the list items. These variations help break the monotony
and add surprise and interest to the rhythm.

3 Types of Rhythm

In design
we alternate the positive element with negative space to create patterns, which
we then repeat and vary to create rhythm. We create rhythm through:

gradation
which creates patterns through a progression of regular steps

We’re
creating rhythm almost immediately after we begin designing. it’s inevitable
once multiple elements appear on the screen. We’d like that rhythm to be a
little more planned instead of placing elements randomly though. There are 3
primary types of rhythm you can plan for.

1.Regular rhythm

2.Flowing rhythm

3.Progressive rhythm

Regular rhythm — occurs when the intervals between elements,
or the elements themselves, are similar in size or length. Regular rhythm
repeats the elements over a predictable interval. Typically both interval and
elements are consistent, though one or the other can be varied. The sameness of
a regular rhythm creates a less interesting (though not necessarily boring)
rhythm.

The
regular placement of the same element is usually in a linear path. You can
repeat color, shape, pattern or another characteristic of the element over a
regular interval. To add more interest you can vary the interval (the space),
which changes the pace of the rhythm.

You can
also vary the characteristics of the element. You can keep size and shape
constant while varying color or keep color and shape consistent while varying
size. This variation adds some complexity, but also interest to the rhythm.

Flowing rhythm — occurs when the elements or
interval are organic. The organic and natural patterns are used to create a
feeling of movement. The elements could be organic over each interval or the
interval itself could be organic.

Typically
the element is unique, though similar, over each interval. A good example are
the stripes on a tiger or zebra. No stripe is quite like the next. Seen
together they create a rhythm of natural movement.

Progressive rhythm — occurs when a sequence of forms or
shapes is shown through a progression of steps. Here the elements repeat over
an interval, but with more variation, usually in progressive steps.

Size,
shape or color of the element might have stepped changes over each interval or
the interval itself might vary. The steps should be progressive. The
characteristics of the element should gradually increase or decrease creating a
sense of direction over the sequence. The variation leads to more interest and visual
tension and tends to direct the eye along the progression.

A color
gradient is an example of a progressive rhythm. Gradually decreasing the size
of an element as it recedes into the background is another. The latter creates
linear perspective directing your eye to a vanishing point.

As a
general rule you can add interest to rhythmic patterns by adding emphasis or
contrast that interrupt the pattern at times. This could be a contrasting shape
or color or drastically changing the size of one element.

Emphasis
through contrast sets the element apart from the pattern and momentarily breaks
the rhythm. It can be used to control how the eye flows through the rhythm.
More emphasis on a single element makes the eye pause on it before continuing.
Too much contrast of this kind can lead to discordance and chaos.

Repetition
can also be used to create emphasis through sheer numbers. A lot of local
repetition calls attention to the group of elements being repeated.

Summary

Whether
you plan for it or not, as soon as you place multiple elements on the page your
design will exhibit patterns and rhythm. Human beings seek patterns and will
naturally see them in your work. We find regular and predictable patterns
soothing.

We create
rhythm in our designs by repeating and varying patterns over space. A good
visual rhythm will lead the eye through a design. The predictability of the
rhythm leads to anticipation, which directs visitors to follow.

Variation
adds interest to rhythm. It avoids monotony and offers the occasional surprise.
The most effective rhythms will provide some unexpected variations.

I’ve
talked here about rhythm in more theoretical and abstract terms. I want to pick
up the topic again next week talking a little more about the practical side of
adding rhythm to our designs.

Monday, September 7, 2015

When it comes to finding
friends, perhaps the first step is understanding what exactly friendship is.
Does it mean you have each other in your Facebook list? Or that you see each
other every Tuesday when you play racquetball? Not really. A relationship needs
to have some key elements in order to be labeled as friendship.

A Personal Relationship That Is Reciprocated

It's not enough to see a
person at, say, book group each week and enjoy their company.

In order for a friend to truly
be considered a friend, he or she has to also believe you are their friend
also.

This can get tricky, because
most people have a different idea of what friendship really means. Some people
are instantly trusting of new people, and accept them into their heart without
question. For these types of folks, they assume someone is their friend until
they find out otherwise.

The Difference Between Being Friends and Acting Friendly

Other people, however, might
act "friendly" with someone but not consider them a friend for quite
a while. Perhaps these types of people need to get know someone better before
they even consider labeling them as a friend. Or perhaps they already have a
lot of friends and therefore wouldn't consider someone they occasionally at
social events a friend.

It's a not perfect world, but in terms of friendship, someone who is
genuinely a friend usually:

Has told you that you are a
friend or has introduced you as their friend.

Has called or emailed you
about meeting for coffee, lunch, etc.

Has done something nice for
you.

Is sincerely interested when you
talk about your life.

Roots for you and wants the
best for you.

Is willing to hang out with
you outside of the place you first met (work, social gathering, exercise
class).

Friends Are Kind and Act As a Positive Influence in Your Life

It should go without saying
that real friends make you feel good, as opposed to bring you down. People who
are genuinely your friend put your relationship above being right or trying to
feel superior. If someone constantly puts you down, he or she is not a real
friend.

However, people have bad days
and act imperfect, so there are times when a true friend will be negative or
hurt your feelings. The way to determine if they are really a friend (as
opposed to something more negative like a frenemy) is to look at the whole of
your relationship. Don't look at moments alone, but consider:

How does this person make you
feel when you're with them?

Do you look forward to seeing
them?

Can you share your joy freely?
Or do you feel you need keep quiet about your own good news when you're around
them?

If someone is really your
friend, they act in a kind manner. They do nice things for you. (If they ask
you to do things for them without ever reciprocating, chances are they aren't
really a friend.)

Friends don't keep score, but
there is a balance to the relationship. Sometimes one friend might be in the
"spotlight," while the other is cheering them on. Friends should
trade off in giving each other the "floor" in a conversation and in
life, and should understand when the moment is their friends and not theirs.

Friends Are People You See on a Regular Basis

The other key component to
friendship is a real, face-to-face, relationship. This isn't to say that after
you have established a friendship, you can't still be friends with them once
they move away. However, in order to have a real friendship, you have to spend
time with each other.

While online friendships can
serve a place in your life, they aren't the same as a real friendship. To that
end, the term "friendship" does get applied to many situations today,
from loyal customers to people you don't even know and will never meet. But
that doesn't mean these people are truly your friends.

If you need to qualify the
definition of a friend in your life (my work friend, my Facebook friend), then
chances are it isn't a real friendship, but is instead a different type of
relationship.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

We
often use old sci-fi movies as reference points for our own hopes and fears
about our present reality. That computer interface is so Minority
Report, we might say. That food is something out of Soylent
Green. That building is soJetsons.
It’s imperfect, but it’s a shorthand to talk about the way that the world is
changing, for better and for worse. And given the humanitarian crisis in Syria,
it seems our most popular point of reference in the summer of 2015 is the 2006
film Children of Men.

Based
on P.D. James’s 1992 novel, the film version of Children of Men takes
place in the dystopian world of Britain in 2027. Inexplicably, everyone in the
world has become infertile and the planet has descended into chaos. The UK
still has a functioning government, but London is a brutal police state where
everyone is miserable, yet they’re still trying to live some kind of normal
existence. Desperate refugees from around the world flock to Britain, but
they’re caged and processed like cattle.

Why
then are people in 2015 making comparisons to this movie that’s nearly a decade
old? Because it’s hard to tell the difference between the screenshots ofChildren
of Men and photos of Syrians seeking refugee status in countries
around the world.

Syrians
are fleeing to Austria, to Germany, to Sweden, to the UK — they’re going
anywhere to search for a better life. Above, we see a photo of a “reception
center” in Budapest, Hungary where roughly 300 people escaped today. About
3,000 Syrian refugees were on a train bound for Sopron near the border with
Austria before the train was stopped by Hungarian police.

“In
the interests of rail travel security the company has decided that until
further notice, direct train services from Budapest to western Europe will not
be in service,” Hungarian Railways said in a statement.

The
fighting in Syria has been going on for four years now. But there’s no end in
sight. And as people flee, the scenes of refugees become more and more surreal.
Governments set up blockades, police give orders, and fences are set up to keep
people in line.